After Midnight: K.D. Lang guest stars
Grammy Award winner K.D. Lang makes her Broadway debut from 11 Feb - 09 Mar 2014 as the second special guest star in the Broadway premiere of After Midnight - a new production of Cotton Club Parade - at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre
Lang is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter wo has relleased sixteens albums. Over the course of her 30 year musical career she has received four Grammy Awards and eight Juno Awards, amongst others. Her acting credits includes guest appearances on shows such as, 'How I Met Your Mother,' 'Dharma & Greg,' 'The Roseanne Show' and the film 'Eye of the Beholder.'
Lang follows the musical's first special guest star Fantasia, who starred in the show from 18 Oct 2013 - 09 Feb 2014. As previously reported, when Lang departs Toni Braxton and Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds will be the show's special guests starring from 18 - 30 Mar 2014.
The regular cast of After Midnight features Dulé Hill, who leads the audience through the Harlem Renaissance as 'The Host.' Tony Award-winner Adriane Lenox ('Doubt') reprises her role as the blues singer with a sense of humor. Julius "Iglide" Chisholm from the dance crew RemoteKontrol, reimagining Harlem's popular 1920's "snakehips" dance. Hip hop performer Virgil J. Gadson; Tony Award-nominated modern dancer Karine Plantadit ('Come Fly Away'); Michael Jackson's tap coach Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and tap-dancing choreographer Jared Grimes.
The cast also includes a male quartet comprised of Grammy Award-nominee and member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band Everett Bradley, Cedric Neal, T. Oliver Reid and Monroe Kent; a female trio of Broadway vets including Carmen Ruby Floyd, Rosena M. Hill Jackson and Bryonha Marie Parham, and dancers Marija Abney, Phillip Attmore, Christopher Broughton, Taeler Elyse Cyrus, C.K. Edwards, Danielle Herbert, Bahiyah Hibah, David Jennings, Erin Moore, Justin Prescott, Tony Award nominee Desmond Richardson ('Fosse'), Monique Smith and Daniel Watts.
After Midnight opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 03 Nov 2014, following previews from 18 Oct 2014, where it is currently booking through to 31 Aug 2014.
The show opened to mostly good reviews: Sparkling new jazz revue (NY Times); An exhilarating joyride (NYDN); Brings class back to Broadway (NYP); It's thoroughly entertaining (Record); It's jazz heaven (Hollywood Reporter).
After Midnight celebrates Duke Ellington's years at the famed Harlem nightclub in the 1920s and '30s, when the joint was jumping with shows featuring big band swing and blues music.
The production features singers, dancers, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center All Stars, under the direction of Wynton Marsalis. The score includes songs by jazz composers of the time, including Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields ("I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "Digga Digga Doo"), a young Harold Arlen ("Stormy Weather," "I've Got the World on a String," "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,"), and the legendary Duke Ellington ("Rockin' in Rhythm," "Cotton Club Stomp," "Black and Tan Fantasy," and "Creole Love Call").
The timeless tunes set against a narrative of Langston Hughes poetry will provide a backdrop for an array of performances by 25 vocalists and dancers, including special guest stars.
After Midnight, is conceived by Jack Viertel, with direction and choreography by Warren Carlyle and music direction by Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis.
The creative team includes costumes by Isabel and Ruben Toledo, sets by John Lee Beatty, lighting by Howell Binkley and sound by Peter Hylenski.
Encores! Special event production of the jazz musical 'Cotton Club Parade,' now named After Midnight, played two runs at New York City Center in 2011 and 2012.
After Midnight is produced by Scott Sanders Productions, and Wynton Marsalis, in association with Marks-Moore-Turnbull Group; Stephen and Ruth Hendel; and Tom Kirdahy.
K.D. LangOriginally published on